


volleyball is a sport where you’re always looking up (he doesn’t raise his gaze)

by pinball_mentality



Series: catalyst (the little giant is a title of the future) [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, One Shot, Oops, again: i guess, and so I wrote this, i feel a lot of ways about the little giant, i guess, i just really love udai for no reason, lowercase intended, no beta we die like daichi, this kinda made me sad ngl, what do i even tag here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:01:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26279101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinball_mentality/pseuds/pinball_mentality
Summary: udai tenma passes an electronics store on his way home, and pauses to watch a boy with orange hair on the tv.or: the parallels and the differences between the little giants of the past and present.
Series: catalyst (the little giant is a title of the future) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1909456
Comments: 8
Kudos: 25





	volleyball is a sport where you’re always looking up (he doesn’t raise his gaze)

**Author's Note:**

> i just really love the little giant okay??? i feel a lot of ways about him and i wish he got more screen time/content, so this was born. also, i had no idea what to name this and i think it shows.
> 
> anyways, enjoy!! :D

nothing extraordinary should happen.

he's visiting relatives in his hometown on his free time. a brief break, one he doesn't get very often. he's been sent out to buy groceries, so he bikes down the path towards the nearest convenience store. an old man cheers loudly at something he can't see. his feet slip on the pedals.

he stops.

he has to brush hair back behind his ear to see the old man properly. oh. there are two old men, standing languidly around a tv screen. he cranes his neck a little to see around one of their arms and stills. oh. his chest tightens from an emotion he can't name.

a boy with orange hair stands proudly with the number 10 painted equally as proudly on his back. he's just come back from flying and he stands at the top, sees the summit. he feels invincible, and he knows this as fact because he's flown before too.

the wings on his back twitch, and itch to spread freely once more. it's a feeling he hasn't felt in a long time. the pride of an ace, of flying, of playing volleyball. his heart swells and he still can't name that emotion but maybe it's a little familiar, too.

he turns away and pushes off the ground again. he doesn't jump, he doesn't fly. he bikes onwards, past the electronics store and past the old men cheering on his team _(because they're still his team, after all these years, they're still his team because karasuno never forgets the people who play on its court and he's never forgotten that it takes six people to play volleyball and the better six always win and the feel of a volleyball right before it spikes into the ground has never left his hand all this time and he's never forgotten that he is the ace and that pride is something he will carry with him to his grave, and there are too many reasons to name but that doesn't matter because he's part of karasuno's team regardless)._

his legs burn with the difficulty of going uphill and for a second he imagines they burn with the feeling of jumping, higher than the blockers on the other side and higher than the summit. for a second he imagines he is back on the court, spiking a ball. for a second he imagines he is flying.

udai tenma bikes past an electronics store a day after meeting hinata shouyo at nationals, and remembers what it feels like to play volleyball. that night his gaze lingers on the posters of olympic players in his childhood bedroom a little longer than it used to, and he spins an old ball in his hands a couple times before putting it back.

he does not tell a close friend that he wants to play volleyball. he does not persist against all odds just to chase a dream of standing on the court and simply playing volleyball. he does not fight tooth and nail to stay on the court as long as he can.

he is not the little giant anymore. that title has already been passed on to someone else, someone far better than him. and so he goes to sleep that night, and he wakes up the next morning with ideas of what the characters starring in his next manga will be like. he does not dream of volleyball, or growing wings, or flying. he does not dream of the tall, tall wall that looms in front of him, and he does not dream of what the view from the top looks like.

udai tenma passes an electronics store.

nothing extraordinary happens.

**Author's Note:**

> give me more tenma content you cowards 
> 
> also, i wanted to do something with his hair?? since it used to be short when he played volleyball. plus hinata’s hair is short, too, so it’d be good for another comparison between them and the past/present. but i couldn’t find a way to fit it in that sounded natural, so i just left it.
> 
> thanks for reading!! feel free to drop a comment and some kudos!! it gives me that sweet, sweet, serotonin. :)


End file.
